my life, my thoughts, my world.

However, since there is still no post office, I would hold off sending anything for at least 10 days. I would imagine that things will actually make it here if mailed in around 10 days since they will spend at least a week in transit to theater anyway. If not, oh well – I have the (an) address, so as promised I am posting it. Prepare to copy….

SGT Anthony J. Martinez
HHT 3HBCT 3ID S3
Besmaya Range Complex
APO AE 09308

edit: Besmaya Range Complex is not required. If you really feel like you just HAVE to put something there, FOB Hammer is fine. All that is required for mail to get here however, is Rank/Name, Unit/Section, APO AE 09308 – that goes for everyone here, regardless of what unit they are in.

Since I don’t have much time, I’ll describe our base with a reference that has been going around here a lot: M.A.S.H. If you’ve seen the ancient television series, you’ve seen my base.

I’ve promised many a list of things I know I will need, and my address. The list I have, the address I do not. List follows:

• For those of you in the know about firearms – I’ve got 16 M16/M4′s that need frequent cleaning, as the “sand” here is more like fine baby powder and gets everywhere, quickly. Bore snakes, chamber brushes, patches, pipe cleaners, and lube would be much appreciated. Those of you with prior service know how much the .mil supplies suck, and how frequently they show up anytime within the same decade they were ordered. Also, the little toothbrush thing are complete crap for cleaning the outside – a barber’s shaving cream brush is a godsend though, so if anyone can dig a few of those up, that would rock.
• Deodorant (Speed Stick, the original regular stuff is fine)
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrushes
• Non-scented Lotion
• Shampoo (with conditioner)
• Soap (Irish Springs, plzkthx)
• .mil folk (ahem, Brother-in-Law!) – I need ACU name tapes, like 6 of them would be awesome
• Canned Air
• Lens/Screen Wipes
• Chewing gum
• Jerky (Mom)
• Sweetarts
• Magazine subscriptions (to my home address) for Motorcyclist, Sport Rider, and Mac|Life (ok so that one is a little selfish, but whatever)

That is all I had on my handy 3×5 card. We will eventually have a PX, but it will be two trailers backed up to each other, and will service over 3000 people. A steady flow of the above should at least keep my soldiers, my fellow NCOs, and myself out of 3 hour lines to buy a bar of soap. Again, as soon as I get our address, and can fight my way back to a computer with internet – I will post it. That’s all for now.

Sometime in the next undisclosed number of hours, I will travel by an undisclosed method, to an undisclosed location somewhere less friendly than Kuwait. There will likely not be any kind of communications infrastructure at unsaid location, so don’t expect an update anytime in an unknown window of time. That is all.

I’m still in Kuwait. Since it wouldn’t be Kuwait without the kind of cold that makes you feel like you’re coughing up a lung, I naturally have said type of cold. Fun stuff indeed. Mostly I sleep, get up to eat or piss – whichever nature calls for – or go to pull my shift where I sit in the TOC for several hours doing absolutely nothing. For instance, my first shift today gave me the time to put keywords to every single photo in my iPhoto library (over 1400). Tons of fun.

In the spirit of many (5) hard drives past, I’ve been keeping regular backups of the Macbook Pro. Hopefully it doesn’t decide to eat through disks like the FujiP did, though the FujiP is along for the ride just in case. Something like SuperDuper! would have been nice last time around, as it would have saved me several hours. Again, I hope I don’t end up needing any of my backups this time around – but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Sorry is no fun.

Check my Flickr for daily photos of me if you’re so inclined. There’s a Flickr group that challenges you to take a ‘self-portrait’ every single day – I figured that would keep me occupied for anywhere from 1/400th to 1/10th of a second every day, so I’m doing it.

I’m back in Kuwait, and things don’t look much different than they did two years ago. It isn’t cold, rainy, and miserable here this time, so that is an added bonus. I will be making calls as soon as I can – the line was much shorter here at the MWR Internet Cafe.

Last night was supposed to mark my deployment in support of OIF5, though weather extended my stay here in the US until later tonight. What I do know, that is worth telling everyone anyway, is that you can continue to mail me at my Ft. Benning address. Mail to that address will be forwarded to me in Iraq when they give the mailroom our address there. I would suggest waiting at least two weeks before starting to send anything, lest we flood the mailroom with things they can neither store, nor forward. If you don’t have that address, here it is:

SGT Anthony J. Martinez
9156 Marne Rd.
#1369
Ft. Benning, GA 31905

For now that’s all I’ve got. Rest assured I will update when I can.